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The Stargazers: Indah (6)
thumb|700pxOnce upon a time there was a small city in Eledus called Exup which relied on its diviners, especially its astrologers. When suddenly the night is replaced by an eternal summer day none can tell the future anymore. Two people are found guilty: John, the only astronomer of Exup and Harald, the head of the astrologers. Together they must find a way to bring back the night and clean their names. Oracle 'I don't know what's wrong with you, but can you please be more direct? You're ranting about how precise the diviners of Exup are, yet you keep talking like some vague oracle. Is that part of the job? Being mysterious and such?' 'No,' Harald sighed. 'Exup has something which is really rare to find in the kingdom of Dru. We have an astronomer who is able to correct the mistakes in our patterns, discover new celestial bodies who influence our life in a way, updates our charts and all those things on a daily basis. That's the difference between a regular astrologer and an astrologer of Exup. We are up to date. They try to predict the future with the past. Without you, John, Exup is lost.' 'Well, and here I am. Far away from the village I'm oh so important to! And you should feel the same. You were the best astrologer of Exup until that curse. Suddenly we were not that important anymore. We even were the ones to blame for the mess and now you're telling me that I'm indispensable for the people who treated me like trash my whole life?! What do you need from me, Harald, because otherwise you would never try to flatter me like that,' John said. He did not only rub his nose anymore, but also his eyes. 'This is exactly the reason why no one has ever told you this. You mean well, but you're not the easiest person to get along with,' Harald softened his voice. 'Well, if everybody in the village hates you…' John said. 'Why didn't you leave?' Indah asked. John sighed. 'A reasonable paid job as astronomer including a private observatory is hard to find. I need money to buy food and I truly love astronomy too much to look for another job in a nicer place,' John admitted. 'And Midas is nice to me.' 'I suppose we should show our gratitude towards you more when we get back.' 'I don't understand why you looked down to me in the first place.' 'We are the famous astrologers of Exup. We love our work as much as you do, but you can tell the people "Yes, I discovered that planet, I fixed that mistake and I am responsible for all those fantastic astrology charts." All we can see is "Yes, we saw it coming, but not without the help of the astronomer." That's the reason your great-grandfather was loved so much, because people acknowledged him, but the astrologers grew tired of sharing the spotlight over and over again. Eventually they claimed everything as their own doing,' Harald said. 'In short: we're the asses.' The three sat a few moments in silence while John saw the moon already lowering in the night sky. The fleeing moon made the other celestial bodies so much clearer. If it wasn't for this light he could have seen the beauty of stars. 'John?' Indah asked a bit sleepy. 'Yes.' 'How can you see stars if it is dark? And what does a star look like?' 'A star looks like glistering diamond on black velvet and the night isn't dark. On a clear night like this she is filled with thousands of stars and other celestial bodies. Sometimes you can even read in the light of the moon,' John told her. Indah sighed. 'I wish I could see the stars,' she said. 'Can you stop glowing? In that case you can see them,' John said. 'I can,' Indah said hesitantly. 'But the darkness…I'm really scared. There are monsters in it.' 'The biggest monsters here are Harald, me and maybe some oversized moths. You can handle it. Believe me, you have never seen so much beauty in your life as a sky filled with stars.' 'He's right you know,' Harald said. 'But…but…' 'Let's try this: because of the red light I still can see some stars. You will stop glowing and keep close to me. When your eyes get used to the darkness you'll see some stars, alright? And if you found this too scary you run to Harald,' John tried. Slowly Indah nodded. He took the girl by her hand and lead her away from the radiating astrologer. In little steps Indah dared to dim her light. Eventually she stood close to John while her eyes got used to the darkness around her. It didn't take long before she spotted the moon. She kept jumping up and down from enthusiasm about it's size and beauty. Moments later she saw her first star. It was Indah. In an attempt to get closer to the star she left John's radius of red light and found herself not surrounded by darkness, but draped in the gently glowing diamond coat of the night. She reached out to them, laughed and danced until she felt to dizzy from spinning around. 'I must tell you something,' Indah panted. She kept her distance to the two man so she was able to keep looking at the stars. 'You don't need the merchant. He only wished to restore his fortune. The curse was my doing.' 'You're doing?' Harald asked. 'Don't be angry. The merchant told me about how he lost all his money. He went to your house in the middle of the night, Harald, and got a divination. In the end you were wrong and I thought that it was because you needed to have light to see the future. I felt pity for you and the other astrologers so…well, you know what happened.' Just for safety she took some more distance from the men, but Harald and John started to laugh loudly until they had tears in their eyes. 'I can't wait to tell this to my wife,' Harald hiccoughed from laughing. 'I can turn everything back like it was,' Indah said timidly. 'That would be very nice.' John said. 'But what will you do after all this?' Harald asked. 'Sleeping,' she yawned. 'I was going home to mister Douwe, my banker, together with the merchant. I saw Harald running from the moths when I couldn't sleep,' Indah told him. 'Is he a nice banker?' John asked. 'Very nice. I bet he will let me travel to Exup to visit you guys from time to time.' 'I hope so,' John said. The men brought Indah back to the camp where they silently said their last goodbyes before she turned everything back to normal. As bonus she teleported them back to the village. Exup under the morning stars. Into the Chronicles Achoo! ‘Seems the spell wore off,’ Harald noticed. ‘Yes,’ John sniffed. Of course he had left his handkerchief at home. Oh well, his sleeve was good enough for the moment. ‘So, we saved the village,’ Harald said. ‘Indeed we did,’ John said. The observatory towered once again over the little houses and John couldn't be happier with the prospect to climb all those stairs to the upper dome to sleep under his telescope for the whole day. ‘Do you think they will treat us as heroes?’ Harald asked. ‘More like: good thing you didn’t make it worse.’ ‘Ah, come on, John. We didn’t save Dru from eternal doom, but we saved Exup from eternal light.’ ‘Yeah, put that in the chronicles. Two glowing idiots safe their village by talking to a little girl about their job.’ ‘Maybe I should write Indah and ask her to put the glowing back on you. Than we can at least pretend you’re a little ray of sunshine,’ Harald teased. ‘Have you never read some chronicles? The heroes are always in mortal danger, someone must die and there will be love triangle. You don’t write a story about two glowing guys or…I don’t know… a dragon with booze.’ ‘The strangest thing I’ve ever read was a story about a cricket who saved whales in an ice sea.’ ‘What, in Dru’s name, is standing on your book shelves?’ John asked. ‘Books, mostly. Shall we go, John? If we are greeted as heroes I prefer not to smell like dirty creek water.’ Exup. It still sounded like a soap brand, but again it was the home to the worlds most annoying wizard wannabees ever. They still needed an astronomer though. And maybe it was time for this town to get some real wizards. Or even better: a genie. The end Final message Hey everybody, I hope you enjoyed this story. I sure did. It was a blast to work with two characters who have such a great chemistry from the start. John and Harald pulled this story on their own and I was only there to write it down or give it a gently push in the right direction. Mvs109 13 jan 2018 16:55 (UTC) Categorie:The Stargazers Categorie:The Stargazers: hoofdstukken Categorie:Mvs109